Francine

copyright Helene Smuts and Africa meets Africa

We visited the homestead and studio of one of the most influential artists in South Africa, Francine Ndimande. Francine passed away a couple of years ago, but her legacy is safely overseen by her family - including daughters Ellen and Joyce - and the Ndebele Foundation, which Francine helped establish.

Iman modeling for Town & Country

This clipping was hanging on Francine's wall. It is from a January 1992 photo shoot for Town & Country magazine. An April 9, 2013 article in T&C's online Family Album, contained this interesting exchange about the photo shoot,

"When two women, Franzina Ndimande and her daughter Angelina, expressed amazement at her high fashion ensembles, Iman explained, 'Well, you paint murals and that's your work. This is mine. I wear clothes and people take my picture. But please, tell me why you paint these houses.' To which Franzina replied, 'It's cultural. Mothers teach daughters. Traditionally we have been a polygamous society, and this style of painting has been both a form of tribal identification and a way to distinguish which house belonged to which wife. You see, each woman has a distinctive style of painting, so by looking at the designs and the colors, anybody passing by would know who lived where.'

Although the Ndebele had been in South Africa for more than a millennium, with so many fleeing to the cities for work, the tradition of painting houses was vanishing. The trip was designed to bring awareness to this endangered traditional art and Iman, at the urging of the photographer Margaret Courtney-Clarke, became the unofficial spokesperson for the campaign."

The family's Roman Catholic faith is evident inside Francine's home

A photograph of Francine in Berlin and her rosary

Francine in Berlin

some of her designs for Eschenbach Porzellan Germany

inspiration was everywhere!

The Ndebele Foundation may be one of Francine's most important legacies. Another one of the founders, the above-mentioned photographer Margaret Courtney-Clarke, was involved with the Ndebele Foundation for more than twenty years.

some illustrious benefactors

Francine's natural pigment murals below and one of her student's work above

canvases for sale into the Foundation's studio

Francine's husband and grandson with Lou & Serge

burial plots inside the cattle kraal.

As the second wife, Francine is buried on the left of the first wife. Francine's husband will be buried on the right of the first wife.












Students studying at the Foundation can stay in dormitories on the grounds.

a dormitory room

a braai